4G ministers want to focus on 'other pressing issues'

Indranee: 4G ministers not fixated on leadership succession

While leadership succession is a pressing issue, Singapore's fourth-generation ministers want to focus on other important topics such as jobs and social issues, said Senior Minister of State for Finance and Law Indranee Rajah yesterday.

She acknowledged that there has been speculation about the next prime minister, but this is not something the younger ministers want to fixate on, she said.

"It's a question that people ask, and we also recognise it's a pressing issue. But it's not the kind of thing you want to be fixated upon, simply because there are other pressing issues like the economy, jobs, social and fiscal sustainability," she said.

"Even when you talk about future leadership, you talk about all of this - at the end of the day, what is this for? It's about ensuring stability for Singapore, it's ensuring that as a country, we have strong leadership and that we are able to progress."

Ms Indranee was speaking to reporters at the launch of a programme to provide breakfast for children living in rental blocks in Tanjong Pagar GRC, where she is an MP.

At the event, children from 80 households chomped on cereal for breakfast and were treated to a magic show.

The year-long programme - targeted at kids aged three to 12 - is a collaboration involving the Tanjong Pagar-Tiong Bahru Citizens Consultative Committee, Kellogg Company (Asia Pacific), which provided the cereal, and philanthropic group Heartwarmers, which supplied the milk.

Each household will get 1kg of cereal and six 250ml packets of milk on the first Saturday of every month.

Ms Indranee's comments come after a joint statement made on Thursday by 16 of the ruling People's Action Party's younger ministers, in which they said they would pick a leader among themselves "in good time".

Ms Indranee is among the 16.

They were responding to queries after Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong made a Facebook post on New Year's Eve highlighting the urgent challenge of choosing Singapore's next leader and said he hoped the current cohort would do so in six to nine months.

On Saturday, Mr Goh said his post was meant to elicit a response from the fourth-generation leaders. Referring to the statement by the 16 PAP leaders, he said he had achieved his purpose.

The younger ministers are also focused on building the leadership as a team, Ms Indranee stressed. They believe it is important to have a collegiate approach and to work well together as a team with the entire Cabinet, she said.

"Essentially, the 16 have said what we have to say about this. It's really not about us, it's about Singapore."